As recently as last week, questions arose about Purdue's offense. Lately, people should be taking note of the Boilermakers' defense.

WEST LAFAYETTE — CJ Cox, making his second consecutive start for Purdue basketball ... second straight start after helping slow down Dawson Garcia at Minnesota. This time Furst was advised ...

Entering Friday, 15 of the 18 Big Ten teams are ranked inside the top 70 on kenpom.com. There's also been a real pivot to playing with more pace. The Big Ten is now up to third amongst all the conferences in tempo after rating 24th last year out of 32 leagues.

And, in the game of the night, on CBS Sports Network, Oregon State beat nationally ranked Gonzaga 97-89 in overtime. Relatively speaking, it was a slow day in the sport (except for another Florida coach being accused of wrongdoing in a Title IX complaint).

Kylan Boswell and the rest of the No. 19 Illinois men’s basketball team showed their potential on Tuesday night with a 94-69 rout of host Indiana in Bloomington, Ind. Scott Richey covers college basketball for The News-Gazette. His email is [email protected], and you can follow him on Twitter ( @srrichey ).

NO. 20 PURDUE 81 ... last three seasons at 15-7. Dawson Garcia scored 20 points for the Gophers, who had a one-point lead early in the second half before the Boilermakers got hot.

At 10-5, the Wildcats have hit a skid of late with back-to-back losses to Penn State and Purdue. But both were on the road and neither can be considered a bad loss, as the Nittany Lions and Boilermakers are both having strong seasons.

No. 20 Purdue defeated Northwestern 79-61, getting another big outing from Braden Smith. Here's what coach Matt Painter said after the win.

BOTTOM LINE: Minnesota hosts Ohio State after Dawson Garcia scored 20 points in Minnesota's 81-61 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers. The Golden Gophers have gone 8-3 at home. Minnesota has a 2-2 record in games decided by less than 4 points. The Buckeyes ...